MATE: No 26.04 Release, How does that Affect You, and What Is the Future of Ubuntu MATE?

teward · June 8, 2026, 4:20pm

These questions have been asked numerous times, in numerous varying ways, both here on this Discourse section of the site and on Ask Ubuntu and elsewhere:

What do I do since there was no 26.04 release?
Does this mean I’m screwed, and can’t use MATE anymore?
How do I upgrade if there was no 26.04 release?
What does this mean for the future of the MATE flavor?

This post attempts to be an all-inclusive post that can answer most of these questions. If your question sounds similar to one of these four, you should be here at this post and read through it entirely first before you post your own.

Before you read on, though, you can probably answer these questions yourself and probably others that are similar by reading these pretty well written answers on Ask Ubuntu:

What do I do if there was no 26.04 release?

You carry on as usual. The fact there was no 26.04 installer ISO for Ubuntu MATE means nothing. The underlying software is still in the repositories. The next question is similar to this, but…

Does this mean I’m screwed, and can’t use MATE anymore?

ABSOLUTELY NOT! MATE as a flavor has a new development team who have stepped up in place of it’s last leader and developers, and they are working hard to fix bugs, update the software, etc. for the future!

MATE as a Desktop Environment and its corresponding packages it usually installs with are still available in the Ubuntu 26.04 repository. You could install those components on top of any existing Ubuntu 26.04 installation by running sudo apt install ubuntu-mate-desktop and then just telling the system to use the MATE environment. You can even do this from a headless install of an Ubuntu Server 26.04 instance if you don’t want to preload the standard GNOME desktop components.

How do I upgrade if there was no 26.04 release?

While there was no 26.04 release of MATE as an official installer ISO, that does NOT mean you have no upgrade paths!

The underlying software that comprises the MATE release - selected bundled software, desktop environment, etc. - are all still available in the Ubuntu repositories. That means that you can still upgrade to 26.04!

If you are currently using Ubuntu MATE 25.10:

Just simply run the following commands on the command line:

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade -y
sudo do-release-upgrade

Follow through the update prompts. You’ll be updated to the underlying Ubuntu 26.04 release and your packages should still upgrade to whatever version of the software that MATE normally would have shipped on an ISO that is in the repositories.

If you are currently using Ubuntu MATE 24.04:

You need to wait until the 24.04 → 26.04 upgrade path is opened generally. This is typically done by the overall Release Team for Ubuntu as a whole after the 26.04.1 point release. At that time, follow the 25.10 upgrade process and upgrade as you normally would.

What does this mean for the future of the MATE flavor?

How fortunate for you: there is a new team working on Ubuntu MATE who have stepped up to help take over flavor management. They haven’t formally introduced themselves yet, but I can safely say that other developers HAVE stepped up for the future of the MATE flavor, despite its prior team lead having stepped down.

(And in case you wonder how I can say this with authority, one of the things I keep an eye on with my Community Council Member and Technical Board Member hats on is the status of flavors - this has been something I’ve kept a pulse on since before the 26.04 cycle)

Ultimately, this means that they are working to cover the missed items and gaps, and may quite possibly have a 26.10 release in October of 2026, which I believe they most likely are targeting.

This also means that bugs in the MATE environment and in packages they normally would have shipped had they have a 26.04 release are still going to get attention and fixes. So, effectively, nothing has changed. The only difference is that there was no 26.04 installer image released.

TL;DR, or if you have actually read all the way here:

Rest easy, MATE is not going away, and you are not going to get screwed over simply because there was no 26.04 installation image released for MATE.

QwertyChouskie · June 9, 2026, 1:07am

Glad to hear a new team picked up the project! Once things are settled in a bit, is there any chance of a 26.04.2 ISO being released? Hopefully that would give the team the time needed to SRU any important bugfixes made during the 26.10 cycle and have a successful non-LTS release under their belts, while still eventually giving people doing a fresh installation of Ubuntu MATE LTS the option to directly install 26.04.x, instead of needing to first installing 24.04 then immediately upgrade to 26.04.x.

teward · June 9, 2026, 1:48am

Unlikely.

To my knowledge, in order to have ‘point releases’, you have to first have a base ISO release. Which doesn’t exist here, so they don’t get any ‘point releases’ for ISOs.

The solution, as I wrote, is to install Ubuntu Server 26.04 and then install ubuntu-mate-desktop on top of that and then shut down and reboot for a “clean” install. Or install standard Ubuntu 26.04 and then install ubuntu-mate-desktop and choose the MATE session for your environment.

In either case, I would not expect any 26.04.* ISOs for MATE.

lostados · June 9, 2026, 2:00pm

Many thanks for the very comprehensive upgrade.

tasmanskytygr · June 14, 2026, 9:35am

Thank you very much for this info.
I’ve been an enthusiastic Ubuntu MATE user for 6 years now, and I hope to stay with it. It’s a great distro.

guiverc · June 14, 2026, 10:13am

You’ll be able to, in fact the stonking or 26.10 daily can be found at

Evidence of the new team at work

skia · June 15, 2026, 4:19pm

Great that there is this new team!
Did they introduce themselves somewhere since this post, so that the Release Team can get to know them?

teward · June 16, 2026, 1:47pm

“They have not formally introduced themselves yet.”

So, I would say ‘nope, not yet’. They will have to obviously to get 26.10 release status of course.

suivue · June 17, 2026, 9:35am

@skia @teward Sorry for the delay in replying. As discussed on our dev channel, I will create a new thread/topic introducing ourselves (I have prepared a draft) which can be linked to all topics where UM status is being discussed.

suivue · June 17, 2026, 10:40am

I have written a topic introducing new Ubuntu MATE team members. The ‘team’ tag is there for project coordination and anybody who wants to see Ubuntu MATE thrive is welcome. The future of Ubuntu MATE depends on that community effort . Together we can!

teward · June 17, 2026, 6:53pm

Glad to see the introduction!

@skia will probably want to favorite that

cartergray · June 18, 2026, 6:48am

That would be great if resources allow it. A 26.04.2 ISO would make fresh installs much easier and save users from installing 24.04 first and then upgrading. Hopefully the team can consider it once things have settled down.

guiverc · June 18, 2026, 7:00am

Ubuntu MATE & Ubuntu Unity didn’t apply for, or receive LTS status, as a result their dailies of the Ubuntu resolute no longer exist; they’ve been turned off (disabled).

The .1/.2 point release ISOs will only be created/released for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and the flavors which applied & were approved for LTS status.

I talked about or around that in this post

but the creation of dailies has since been disabled for the mentioned non-LTS flavors, with flavor team members notified when it was actioned (by Ubuntu Release team)

Ubuntu Desktop 26.04 LTS, and ISOs from the LTS flavors will be released.

The new Ubuntu MATE team are working on the stonking or 26.10 ISOs as evidenced by the new dailies available; but I wouldn’t be expecting any Ubuntu MATE 26.04 ISOs for any point release.